This article is reproduced from Tencent.com, "In 2020, we will come alive."
At the launch conference of Huawei's foldable mobile phone Mate X2, Huawei's consumer business CEO Yu Chengdong summed up the company's operations last year in a few words. Just before the press conference, the number of people who made appointments to purchase Mate X2 online at Huawei's official mall was nearly 3 million.
However, in stark contrast to the purchase boom brought about by new phones, statistics from relevant agencies show that in the fourth quarter of 2020, Huawei’s domestic mobile phone shipments plummeted by 34.5% year-on-year, while OPPO in the domestic mobile phone brand camp in the quarter , Vivo, and Xiaomi all achieved positive growth, and Huawei is the only mainstream mobile phone manufacturer with negative growth.
On the one hand, the decline in the sales of Huawei's mobile phones under the shadow of "core shortage" is almost a foregone conclusion; on the other hand, aiming at the huge market gap left by Huawei, a number of domestic mobile phone manufacturers have rushed to "make up for". Who can stand in the next "C position" in the high-end market of domestic mobile phones with Xiaomi, Honor, OPPO, vivo and OnePlus, which "looks at each other"?
●Southern Daily reporter Xu Jun
Compete in the high-end market
Domestic mobile phone giants fighting close?
Despite several negotiations and games, the problem of "core shortage" facing Huawei is still daunting.
The direct impact of this is that Huawei’s mobile phone shipments have fallen sharply. Among them, the Mate and P series of high-end models bear the brunt. Models including the Huawei Mate40 series and Mate X2 have to actively "restrict purchases". Under the pressure of "no food", he chose to survive independently.
According to the mobile phone market tracking report released by IDC, Huawei still ranks among the top three in the world in 2020, but its mobile phone shipments are only 189 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 21.5%, and its market share dropped from 17.5% in 2019 to 14.6%. Chips based on 7nm and below process "can't be made, can't be bought."
It can be expected that Huawei’s “giving way” to the “C position” of the high-end mobile phone market may become a reality.
At the same time, because of "good performance in three aspects: mainstream product layout, brand reputation, and offline channel expansion," Xiaomi's mobile phone shipments soared by 17.6% year-on-year, returning to the third position in global smartphone shipments. "Take three look at one" is just around the corner.
From the perspective of competitiveness, starting from "cost-effectiveness", Xiaomi announced in 2019 that it will develop in a dislocation with Redmi and fully impact high-end Xiaomi. In addition to continuing to increase its core mobile phone technologies such as camera and AI algorithms, it has begun to accelerate its expansion line since 2020. Down the channel. After achieving the goal of "opening thousands of stores at the same time" in early 2021, Xiaomi's next plan is to "make the home of Xiaomi cover all counties."
Xiaomi is not the only one with the "high-end dream". From the glory of Huawei's independence, OnePlus is trying to tear off the "Small and Beautiful" label. Samsung, which intends to return to the Chinese market, as well as OPPO, vivo, etc., are vying to target the high-end mobile phone market in 2021.
Among the entrants, the competitiveness of OPPO and vivo, which are known as the kings of offline channels, should not be underestimated. After several years of production line layout and scientific research investment, OPPO has begun to increase shipments of high-end models in a rhythmic manner starting in 2020. Vivo launched a new operating system "OriginOS" at the end of 2020 to further consolidate its software level. Competitive advantage.
As a sibling brand that used to be the corner of Huawei, Honor inherited some of Huawei’s R&D teams in Shenzhen, Beijing and Xi’an and platform technology achievements, including camera technology, advanced mobile phone technology (such as architecture design), GPU Turbo, etc., Competitiveness is also strong.
"We have inherited high-quality resources and can confidently focus on mid-to-high-end products to win the favor of Chinese high-end consumers for new Honor products." In January this year, Zhao Ming, CEO of Honor Terminal Co., Ltd., who returned to public view with a new identity Say. According to sources close to Honor, the goal of New Honor in 2021 is to become the number one in the domestic mobile phone market.
The gap in the high-end market left by Huawei is no less than a "fatal temptation" for many mobile phone manufacturers. While each offers its own big moves to compete for technical prowess, close fights in the market are inevitable. However, whether it is in terms of brand image, technology accumulation, or research and development strength, it is still unknown who can stand in the “C position” of the high-end domestic mobile phone market.
Apple's Samsung position is hard to shake
The pain of high-end domestic mobile phones?
The "C position" controversy, what to fight to the end?
Since 2020, Xiaomi, OPPO, etc. have all stated that their brands have initially established themselves in the high-end market. However, according to IDC statistics, in the Chinese mobile phone market in the first half of 2020, Huawei ranked first with a 44.1% share, Apple ranked second with a 44% share, Xiaomi ranked third with a 4% share, and OPPO Ranked fourth with a share of 2.6%.
Although "high price is not necessarily the same as high-end", it is certain that the price of high-end products must not be cheap. Not to mention that the price of flagship mobile phones represented by Huawei Mate and P series has been maintained at more than 4,000 yuan for a long time, and the price of some Pro series products of Apple and Samsung has exceeded 10,000 yuan.
Behind the high pricing, it is not only the embodiment of brand power, but also the confidence of the brand in research and development, technology, channels, manufacturing and other fields. Apple, Samsung, and Huawei all have core semiconductor processor design capabilities. In terms of AI algorithm tuning, software ecology, and high-end equipment manufacturing, companies also have their own core technology reserves.
This is also the core reason why Samsung has been able to lead the global high-end mobile phone market even though Samsung has been deeply affected by the "explosive door" incident of Note 7 mobile phones and has been losing ground in the Chinese market in recent years. Today, its domestic shipment share is less than 1%. .
In contrast, even though mobile phone manufacturers such as Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo continue to make up for their technical disadvantages, they still lack "technical genes" in the final analysis. Take Xiaomi as an example. Although "technology-based" has been included in the "three iron laws" of future development, in recent years, breakthroughs have been made in camera, screen, charging, and AI technologies, and the development of a "black light factory" has also been announced. In order to continuously improve new manufacturing capabilities, it is still incomparable with Apple, Samsung, and Huawei in terms of R&D investment and core technology fields such as chip research and development.
According to statistics, Xiaomi invested 5.8 billion in research and development in 2018, reached 7.5 billion in 2019, and invested more than 10 billion in 2020, accounting for 3.6% of total revenue. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun said that in 2021, Xiaomi’s R&D investment is estimated to increase by 30%-40%; Huawei’s annual global sales revenue in 2019 will be 858.8 billion yuan, of which R&D investment is 131.7 billion yuan, accounting for 15.3% of the total annual revenue; For Apple, R&D investment has also accounted for more than 7% of its total revenue over the years, which is much higher than that of Xiaomi and other domestic mobile phone manufacturers.
In addition, according to Sui Qian, a senior analyst at Strategy Analytics, in terms of product technology innovation and high-end channel capabilities, not only Xiaomi, but also OPPO, vivo, OnePlus, etc., have a hard power gap with Apple and Samsung. "Domestic brands will quickly fill the gaps in the low-end and mid-range, but the high-end market is still dominated by Apple and Samsung."
From this point of view, it is not a matter of time to stand in the "C position" of the high-end market for domestic mobile phones.
Innovation "see flowers in the fog"
The "C" position battle is actually a technology battle
In fact, whether domestic mobile phones have real core competitiveness depends on the ability of self-developed chips in the end. This is also a hurdle that all brands cannot overcome.
Studying the advanced history of high-end mobile phones of Huawei, Apple, and Samsung reveals that "chips" are the key to improving product competitiveness. Compared with common chip brands such as Gaotong and MediaTek, the self-developed processors of the first three have outstanding advantages in procurement costs, ecological connectivity and core performance indicators such as imaging and AI. In addition to the A-series chips, "Kirin" chips and Samsung Exynos self-developed processors for iPhone, Huawei, and Samsung high-end models, the three brands also have self-developed ISP image signal processors and core AI algorithms. Chip etc.
This is also the exclusive selling point of the brand's high-end flagship products.
In order to make up for this disadvantage, in recent years, mobile phone manufacturers such as Xiaomi and OPPO have continuously strengthened investment and research and development in the chip field. Since 2018, Xiaomi has successively invested in semiconductor companies such as Onray Microelectronics, Aojie Technology, and Hanxin Microelectronics through the Xiaomi Yangtze River Industry Fund, in the field of communication basebands and various mobile phones and smart home chips. OPPO established Jinsheng Communication and Zheku Technology in 2017, and successively invested in many companies related to chip design, such as Hanwei Electronics and Microcapacity Technology. In October 2019, it further established a chip technology committee, including OPPO, Many technicians from realme and OnePlus laid the foundation for the technical battle of the Mariana Project.
In fact, from "buying chips" to "making chips," domestic brands have also experienced skin pains in the process of "make up lessons". Take Xiaomi as an example. Although the self-developed processor Surging S1 has been built through joint core manufacturing in the early years, due to the backward process, high power consumption, and low support frequency bands, this chip withdrew early even before it was officially launched. Market competition.
Compared with Apple, Huawei and Samsung, domestic mobile phone manufacturers lack capital investment and technology accumulation. Until today, Qualcomm and MediaTek are still the best choice for high-end flagship mobile phones.
However, unlike the chip field, which requires "accumulation and development", manufacturers such as Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo have achieved partial breakthroughs in fast charging, imaging, and smart assistants. OPPO and vivo's 125W, 120W fast charging technology solutions and wireless flash charging technology previously launched have far surpassed Apple and Samsung.
Industry insiders pointed out that with the increasing maturity of related technologies, there will be fewer and fewer technologies that will make people "eye-catching" in 2021, and the phenomenon of "stacking" will become more common. The competition among manufacturers around image pixels, "difficult to return" screen refresh rates, and folding screens, scrolling screens, etc., will not be able to stir up more waves.
More importantly, as the mobile phone market gradually faces the "ceiling" of growth, the extended competition in the smart home and smart car industries will be in full swing. Mobile phone brands lacking hardware technology and software ecological advantages, the way forward toward the "C position" seems to be blooming, but in fact it is rugged and destined to be uneven.